Share
this fact to
educate others, then join the discussion on Facebook or on Twitter (@FreeTheChildrenand @MAboriginalEdu) using #westandtogether. At the end of the
campaign, create your own Daily Fact and share it with Free The Children and
MAEI here.

Remember, there
are also issues backgrounders, lesson plans and other great resources on the We
Stand Together Resources webpage!

This
vignette was filmed with the staff and students of Nunavut Sivuniksavut, in
Ottawa, Ontario. Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) is an Inuit college that helps Inuit
students prepare for the opportunities and growth in Nunavut1. Why
is this program important? What are the benefits of having such a specialized
program?2. is
NS similar to your school? How is it different?3. Why
do you think NS is in Ottawa and not in Nunavut?4. One
of the students says, “There’s a lot of confidence going on around here!” How
does education play a role in helping students develop confidence and
pride?5. Do
you think that this type of training program can be used as a model for
different Aboriginal communities? What about for public education in
general?For
more information visit:http://www.nstraining.ca/http://www.tunngavik.com/about?lang=en

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Here is one perspective on deep Canadian history, brought to us by Free the Children's "We Stand Together" campaign. (I have heard some Indigenous voices push back against the "Bering Straight Theory".) -- Sheena

Hi Sheena,

Thanks for
choosing to stand together! Here is Daily Fact #3:

Inuit
culture and history in North America dates back over 8500
years.

Share
this fact to
educate others, then join the discussion on Facebook or on Twitter (@FreeTheChildrenand @MAboriginalEdu) using #westandtogether. At the end of the
campaign, create your own Daily Fact and share it with Free The Children and
MAEI here.

Remember, there
are also issues backgrounders, lesson plans and other great resources on the We
Stand Together Resources webpage!

People
have lived in the arctic region of North America for thousands of years. Roughly
8,500 years ago, small settlements dotted the coast of the Bering land bridge.
This stretch of land connected Asia and North America. As these communities
grew, they travelled eastward, reaching as far as northern Greenland. The
ancestors of today’s Inuit People were known as “Thule,” who originated in
north-western Alaska 1,100 years ago. As they migrated across Canada over the
following centuries, they replaced the region’s previous inhabitants, the Dorset
people. Parts of the language, culture and even biology of today’s Inuit Peoples
were passed down from the Thule.Although the
Inuit People first met European explorers in the late 1500’s, it would be 400
years before they were in constant communication with “the south.” For the fur
traders, whalers, missionaries and government officials who did visit during
that time, the Inuit People acted as guides and established trading
relationships. One of the most significant impacts of contact with Europeans was
the introduction of new diseases, such as tuberculosis and measles, which had a
devastating effect on the Inuit population.As the
North became more connected to the rest of Canada, the Inuit People put modern
technology to use in their homes and workplaces. Despite the evolution of their
ways of life, Inuit communities have maintained the roots of their identity
through language, art, customs and an oral tradition that has preserved their
history across generations.Today,
the Inuit regions in Canada are known as Inuit Nunangat, meaning “homeland” in
Inuktitut. These include Inuvialuit in the western Arctic (the Northwest
Territories and Yukon), Nunatsiavut on the coast of Labrador, Nunavik in
northern Quebec and Nunavut, which became Canada’s newest territory in 1999.
Land claims negotiations led to the establishment of Nunavut and provided a
framework for the region’s economic development to be driven from an Inuit
perspective.For
more information, check out:https://www.itk.ca/publication/5000-years-inuit-history-and-heritagehttp://www.inuitknowledge.ca/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/inuvial/indexe.shtmlhttp://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/inuit

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Recorded
on a beaded Wampum Belt, one of the first treaties between First Nations and
Europeans dates to 1645 and was called Kahswenhtha, or “Sharing the same river;
steering our own boats.”

Share
this fact to
educate others, then join the discussion on Facebook or on Twitter (@FreeTheChildrenand @MAboriginalEdu) using #westandtogether. At the end of the
campaign, create your own Daily Fact and share it with Free The Children and
MAEI here.

Remember, there
are also issues backgrounders, lesson plans and other great resources on the We
Stand Together Resources webpage!

Historically,
Wampum belts were often made as a way of recording an agreement or treaty
between different First Nations. They were made with Wampum beads, which were
carved from a valuable kind of seashell. One of the first peace treaties
established between the Iroquois Nation and Europeans in the 1600s was named
Kahswenhtha, and was also symbolized by a belt made using Wampum
beads.The
Kahswentha belt has two parallel rows of purple Wampum beads on a background of
white beads. The white beads symbolize the purity of the peace agreement, and
represent “the river of life.” The two rows of purple beads represent the two
groups of people involved in the agreement: namely, the First Nations Peoples
and the Europeans.Kahswenhtha
embodies the concepts of peace, friendship and respect. It was created to
emphasize the peaceful co-existence of the Europeans with the First Nations
Peoples. “Sharing the same river; steering our own boats” refers to the two very
different cultures, customs, traditions and ways of life of the two Peoples.
With the signing of the treaty, both Peoples agreed to follow their respective
customs without interfering with those of the other.For
more information, check out:http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/ve11.htmlhttp://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032291/1100100032292http://www.akwesasne.ca/tworowwampum.html

Monday, February 25, 2013

First day back to school after a week and a bit away. Uggg. What to do. What to do. I started the new semester wearing a safety vest in our Moving Company simulation followed by borrowing an Iron Science Teacher lab coat for my Language Laboratory. What I really need to do is get the marks caught up. Ah ha! I'll be an accountant.

I pull on tights, a pencil skirt, frilly blouse, suit jacket, and heels. This is my best attempt at accountant garb. I clip, clip into the classroom and write "Today is a Surprise Audit" on the white board. I set the room up in rows, open the English teacher's books, and start calling students.

"Let me see your journal, your binder. Let's record the mark from your Moving Company Exam."

"This is scary," one of the students says.

"Good," I say, "Audits are scary." But then I soften. "Accountants just give feedback for improvement."

Gets me thinking this morning about power and improvement. About self-directed goals and power-imposed goals. About the ugly history of audits within Canadian history. Makes me wonder, what to do, what to do.

Share this fact
to educate others, then join the discussion on Facebook or on Twitter (@FreeTheChildrenand @MAboriginalEdu) using #westandtogether. At the end of the
campaign, create your own Daily Fact and share it with Free The Children and
MAEI here.

Remember, there
are also issues backgrounders, lesson plans and other great resources on the We
Stand Together Resources webpage!

This vignette
was filmed with Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children, and The Right
Honourable Paul Martin, former Prime Minister and founder of the Martin
Aboriginal Education Initiative (MAEI). Free The Children and MAEI work together
to bring the We Stand Together campaign to schools and young people across
Canada, encouraging them to learn about Aboriginal history, cultures and
traditions.

Discussion
Questions1.Why
did former Prime Minister Mr. Martin choose to work in the area of Aboriginal
education? Why is it important?2. Some
survivors of the residential schools do not trust the current school system.
What impact might this be having on their children and grandchildren
now?3.
How does your school or community make everyone feel welcome, regardless of
where their family comes from? How can your school or community do the same for
Aboriginal Canadians?4.
What responsibility do we have to make sure that everyone has the same
opportunities in education?For
more information, check out:http://www.freethechildren.com/westandtogether/http://www.maei-ieam.ca/about.html

Friday, February 22, 2013

The snow is blowing. I'm hitting drift after drift on the back roads. Dad is giving me metre-by-metre advice. "Watch this one. Be careful. This spot is bad." I'm home on the farm for a few days, and we're heading into Estevan to meet one of the NDP leadership candidates.

Thanks to Idle No More and my letter writing campaign, I've had personal contact with two of the four hopefuls; Trent Wotherspoon accepted my letters on the freezing steps of the Legislative building in Regina last December; Cam Broten called me personally to explain his support for Idle No More and the issues being raised by Chief Theresa Spence. I was very impressed with both of these men, especially their sincerity and service.

But I kept hearing about Ryan Meili. (Bernadette was making sure of that.) I was super impressed with his invitation for people of faith to bring their convictions into the political social justice movement. I was also impressed by the lineup of people supporting him; however, I hadn't met him.

As we drive in, Mom tells me that Erin Weir, one of the four candidates has just dropped out of the race, throwing support behind Meili. "Is it Mee-lee or Mi-lee?" I say. None of us know.

Dad and I are early. We've let Mom and Arwen go swimming, and we'll pick them up later so they can meet Meili, too. In Evelyn Johnson's red carpet basement, I ask Ryan what his involvement has been with Idle No More.

He was at the first teach-in and was asked to speak at the first Saskatoon rally. As a family doctor who lives and works in Saskatoon's Riverdale community, he is very happy to see his friends and patients finding their voices.

A group of twenty-five or so gather. Meili, as a doctor, uses the metaphor of health to convey his message. He is advocating that we measure our societies wealth by the health of it's citizens. He is referencing evidence from around the country of creative ways to take care of people while taking care of the economy. In fact, he's advocating that it's just good dollars and cents-sense to promote social justice. He fields questions on housing, economy, education, justice, senior citizens, the future and has an articulate "evidence based" answer for everything.

Mom, Dad and I pool our cash and make a small donation for which we receive a warm heart and Dr. Ryan Meili's book A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health can Revive Canadian Democracy.

I'm doing wheelies for Meili, or, make that, I'm jumping highly for Meili as I pin on his campaign button. Here's a vision I can get behind as we take off in the blustery evening.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

What if you chop it in half?
What if you dissect it?
What if you find it in the rain?
What if you put it on a hook? And go fishing?
What if you made mud pudding with chocolate, whip cream and worm sentences?
What if it was made of jujubes?
What if you studied it in Biology?
What if it grew to be six feet long?
What if you picked it up and chased your little sister?

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

What if English Language Arts students were a Moving Company and they worked for an artsy, fartsty English teacher who requested design for eight different communication environments: coffee house, board room, talking circle, performance, movie theatre, rows, workshop, and debate? What if she valued initiative and creativity, challenging the moving company to create a communication environment she hadn't even thought of before?

The CEO of the moving company, wearing a safety vest, explains the challenge to the new recruits. Explains that the English teacher believes environment influences -- maybe even dictates --communication. A round table says, "Talk to each other." Two tables, opposite one another, say, "Let's debate."

One set of recruits has an impromptu meeting at the boardroom table to discuss ways they could better communicate and be more efficient. One recruit leaves the room frustrated. When he returns, his team meets in the talking circle to debrief some frustration and problem solve for the next challenge. One unit faces failure in their campfire design, but they still believe in it, and if there was just more time, they know it has potential.

They sketch diagrams into their Moving Company orientation package, time each setup from the coffee house base design, and describe the dynamics of each set up.

By the end of a couple hours, creativity and initiative abound. There's three new communication environments: a boat, a star and a campout. Modern art sculpture has been added to the coffee house. Feet meet in the talking circle. Performance has gone to new heights on a cat walk. Leaders have been born. Roles of planner, engineer, and lifter have been celebrated. New voices have been heard.

The English teacher makes a surprise visit to the job sight. She couldn't be happier. She can't wait to take the plans into her classroom. Her students will certainly benefit from the diversity in the communication set ups.